Complications:Flashback (Juliana)- Roberto’s first love, Juliana sacrificed her life to save his in his first adventure, and he never quite forgot her after all these years.Relationship (Sam Guthrie)- Roberto & Sam are the best of friends, and are part of an epic bromance. Reputation (Lothario)- Ever since he was a kid, Roberto would attempt to seduce anything female. Women usually sigh and put up with him, finding it non-threatening, but it often leads him to show off or do stupid things.Relationship (Father)- Emmanuel da Costa was a brilliant businessman who was a houseboy at 10, a millionaire at 20, and a wealthy political powerhouse at 30, and expected the best of his son. Bobby longs to be worthy of his father, and attempts to follow in his footsteps after the latter’s death.Power Loss (Solar-Powered)- Bobby’s powers come from solar energy, and it is possible for him to extinguish his powers if used too much at night. Enemy (Gideon)- An External mutant, Gideon thought Bobby was an External as well, and used his influence to murder Emmanuel da Costa and manipulate Bobby to his own ends. This ended with Bobby’s torture and joining X-Force.Enemy (Reignfire)- Reignfire was a super-powered clone of Bobby turned to evil, and he would frequently take over Bobby’s mind and have him commit evil acts. Obsession (Magnum P.I.)- Bobby’s obsession with the greatness of this TV show went a little too far at times, and the biggest heartbreak of his life after Juliana’s death was when it went off the air.

-Sunspot was always fun on this team. Roberto “Bobby” da Costa was a brash, cocky, angry young boy, always the first member of the team to come flying in to beat someone’s head in, and usually the first team member KO’d because of it. The catchphrase “Careful Bobby, you’re strong, not invulnerable!” was a recurring Claremontism of the old days, and Bobby was kind of a “Dumb Muscle” type of guy, but charismatic enough to make up for it. And in spite of his Spoiled Rich Boy upbringing, he was best pals with poor Coal Miner’s Son Sam Guthrie.

-Bobby’s parents were a fascinating couple, as they loved each other, but were constantly sniping at one another over various things (her gallivanting career as an archaeologist sending her all over the world, and his semi-hedonistic wealthy lifestyle). Bobby himself was torn between his constant anger, and his cool calculating exterior. Of the main cast (the initial kids minus Karma plus Magik), you could say he had the least character development of the lot of them, as he was always kind of the hot-blooded fist-fighter who didn’t look before he leapt, but hell, some people don’t change that much, y’know?

-Bobby’s history gets weird around 1990 or so. His father, a huge part of his life, was poisoned by Gideon, one of those awful 90s-era new X-villains, as part of a labyrinthine plot to manipulate the newest “External” (it was actually Sam). Bobby quit the New Mutants in it’s final issues and hooked up with Gideon for a while, before Fabian Nicieza (the X-Force writer) gave him his first big power-upgrade, as Gideon betrayed him and experimented upon him, resulting in Bobby turning into the ever-popular “Blaster” archetype in addition to his low-level super-strength.

-Then there was some way-too-complicated stuff, as Bobby learned how to fly using his powers just in time to disappear for a year or so, then fight an evil clone (Reignfire), and then turn into basically a Blasting Paragon-type of hero. These were the weak-sales years of X-Force, long after they were in the Top Ten best-sellers list. Nowadays, Bobby is back as the comically-dumb guy of the New Mutants in the great new book- Well, he’s not REALLY dumb, but he’s still the first guy to get knocked on his ass. He’s also the team’s best comic relief, turning into quite the sarcastic jokester over time. About Rogue: (paraphrasing) “She wants me, you can tell. That girl couldn’t touch anyone for YEARS. Can you imagine how that feels? Sam, tell Amara how that feels.”

-This build represents Bobby at his Modern-Era Peak. I actually got a good PL 10 (150) build out of him, thanks to applying his Super-Strength as an AE of his Blasting power. I normally don’t do that, as it’s kind of a “cheat”, but he really CAN’T use both powers simultaneously, and draws upon the same power source for both of them. Otherwise, he’d be PL 10 (165), which in the current era of high-cost 3e guys might be accurate anyways, but I just felt like it was too much. This Bobby is perfectly-balanced with +10/+10 on offense (slightly less on defense), which always proves to be pretty strong, as he’s about Class 25 or so (some people go as high as Class 50, but I've never seen anything remotely on that level from him- by the X-Force days he was pretty much JUST a Blaster and barely threw a punch), and his Blasts seem to do similar damage. And only in this era is he almost as good defensively- his “you’re strong, but not invulnerable!” catchphrase holds true most of the time, and he can’t take the hits like he can dish them out normally. As of now, though, he’s quite the Paragon, though they seem to have pulled a "Warpath" on him and downgraded his powers back to their original point in the current "New Mutants" series, as I can't recall him flying or blasting anything, and a few 'net sites seem to corroborate my memories.

-Mentally, he’s not great genius, but he’s not stupid, and is really quite good at business. Not nearly as much as his father, the rest of the Hellfire Club, or other “Rich Bastard” types in the Marvel Universe, but +9 is not too shabby.

Complications:Flashback (Juliana)- Roberto’s first love, Juliana sacrificed her life to save his in his first adventure, and he never quite forgot her after all these years.Relationship (Sam Guthrie)- Roberto & Sam are the best of friends, and are part of an epic bromance. Reputation (Lothario)- Ever since he was a kid, Roberto would attempt to seduce anything female. Women usually sigh and put up with him, finding it non-threatening, but it often leads him to show off or do stupid things.Relationship (Father)- Emmanuel da Costa was a brilliant businessman who was a houseboy at 10, a millionaire at 20, and a wealthy political powerhouse at 30, and expected the best of his son. Bobby longs to be worthy of his father, and attempts to follow in his footsteps after the latter’s death.Power Loss (Solar-Powered)- Bobby’s powers come from solar energy, and it is possible for him to extinguish his powers if used too much at night.

-This is Bobby as of the early X-Force issues, when he was training with Gideon. He’s roughly as elite as his Modern version, but lacks his later additional powers- the Energy Blasts and the Flight, making him MUCH cheaper and kind of proving how much Bobby really needed those powers after all.

Complications:Flashback (Juliana)- Roberto’s first love, Juliana sacrificed her life to save his in his first adventure, and he never quite forgot her after all these years.Relationship (Sam Guthrie)- Roberto & Sam are the best of friends, and are part of an epic bromance. Reputation (Lothario)- Ever since he was a kid, Roberto would attempt to seduce anything female. Women usually sigh and put up with him, finding it non-threatening, but it often leads him to show off or do stupid things.Relationship (Father)- Emmanuel da Costa was a brilliant businessman who was a houseboy at 10, a millionaire at 20, and a wealthy political powerhouse at 30, and expected the best of his son. Bobby longs to be worthy of his father, and attempts to follow in his footsteps after the latter’s death.Power Loss (Solar-Powered)- Bobby’s powers come from solar energy, and it is possible for him to extinguish his powers if used too much at night. Obsession (Magnum P.I.)- Bobby’s obsession with the greatness of this TV show went a little too far at times, and the biggest heartbreak of his life after Juliana’s death was when it went off the air.

-Only slightly cheaper, but he drops a full Power Level down. This Bobby was around for the later (70s-90s) New Mutants issues, in their second Asgardian adventure and the fights against the Mutant Liberation Front. He’d gotten better, but was still rather limited to just punching guys.

Complications:Flashback (Juliana)- Roberto’s first love, Juliana sacrificed her life to save his in his first adventure, and he never quite forgot her after all these years.Relationship (Sam Guthrie)- Roberto & Sam are the best of friends, and are part of an epic bromance. Reputation (Lothario)- Ever since he was a kid, Roberto would attempt to seduce anything female. Women usually sigh and put up with him, finding it non-threatening, but it often leads him to show off or do stupid things.Relationship (Father)- Emmanuel da Costa was a brilliant businessman who was a houseboy at 10, a millionaire at 20, and a wealthy political powerhouse at 30, and expected the best of his son. Bobby longs to be worthy of his father.Power Loss (Solar-Powered)- Bobby’s powers come from solar energy, and it is possible for him to extinguish his powers if used too much at night. Obsession (Magnum P.I.)- Bobby’s obsession with the greatness of this TV show went a little too far at times, and the biggest heartbreak of his life after Juliana’s death was when it went off the air.

-Around issue #50 or so, Bobby was one of the most destructive members of the team, but sucked at accuracy, and was HIGHLY vulnerable to attack, especially compared to other super-strong guys. +6 Toughness is barely beyond human limits.

Complications:Flashback (Juliana)- Roberto’s first love, Juliana sacrificed her life to save his in his first adventure, and he never quite forgot her after all these years.Relationship (Sam Guthrie)- Roberto & Sam are the best of friends, and are part of an epic bromance. Reputation (Lothario)- Ever since he was a kid, Roberto would attempt to seduce anything female. Women usually sigh and put up with him, finding it non-threatening, but it often leads him to show off or do stupid things.Relationship (Father)- Emmanuel da Costa was a brilliant businessman who was a houseboy at 10, a millionaire at 20, and a wealthy political powerhouse at 30, and expected the best of his son. Bobby longs to be worthy of his father.Power Loss (Solar-Powered)- Bobby’s powers come from solar energy, and it is possible for him to extinguish his powers if used too much at night. Obsession (Magnum P.I.)- Bobby’s obsession with the greatness of this TV show went a little too far at times, and the biggest heartbreak of his life after Juliana’s death was when it went off the air.

-And finally, we come to PL 5 (44) era Graphic Novel #4 Bobby. He lacks most of his Mental traits, Skills, Advantages, etc., and is just a highly-damaging kid (+8 damage is nothing to sneeze at) with crappy accuracy and really low defense.

Last edited by Jabroniville on Sat Jun 22, 2013 12:46 am, edited 4 times in total.

So I went back and editing something into my Sabretooth build- something I'd been considering for a while. You ever notice how some guys just happen to have the hero's number, and nearly always kick his ass, despite the heroes often having higher PLs? Look at how much trouble guys like Killer Croc and Two-Face give Batman of all people, especially considering there's no way either of those guys should scratch his PL. Spider-Man has dozens of guys who nearly always beat him in a straight-up fight unless he gets lucky or cheats, for another example. So I constructed a kind of "Favored Opponent" structure around the villain's chosen foe- they're so specialized against fighting their own personal hero that they get a +2 boost to both Accuracy (of whichever attack) or Parry (or Dodge if it's a shoot-y guy). Essentially, this knocks them up a full PL (or more, if you boost more), which reflects how often they fight their own familiar hero (while the hero has to fight MANY different opponents over time).

There's a couple other ways to handle this- you can just fudge your rolls as a GM and just give the player Hero Points to make it 'fair'. You can just automatically do this without cost since the villains are NPCs anyways, though it's mean to the players. But I like this way a bit more- it gives you an in-stat reason why someone like Crossbones (barely a PL 10 fighter) can fight Captain American (PL 12 by anyone's standards, it seems) and not just get the crap beaten out of him in two seconds.

Similar things can be given to "New" characters looking to make a name for themselves, but I'd give this a more "the GM boosts their power" thing. Notice how badly The Shocker kicked Spider-Man's ass the first time they fought? Spidey couldn't lay a finger on him and got the hell beaten out of him. He even had to trick him to win (by webbing his thumbs away from his 'shock gloves')! Nowadays? The Shocker's a PL 9 guy at-best, and couldn't beat Spidey with four guys helping him. So as a GM, I'd give a lot of guys an "Unfamiliarity Bonus" of sorts, pushing new villains much harder the first couple times, and letting it drop as the heroes fight them more and more, and the villains settle back into the regular Rogue's Gallery of easily-beaten bad-guys.

Complications:Prejudice (Mutant)Prejudice (Lesbian)Enemy (General Nguyen Ngoc Coy)- Karma's uncle is an evil General, lording over the island nation of Singapore. They have come into conflict many times.Relationship (Leong & Nga)- Karma's younger twin siblings are a primary focus in her life, and they have disappeared or been targetted more than once.Flashback- Karma and her mother were raped (long before it was popular for comic book heroines too) by pirates during her family's escape from Vietnam, and her mother died shortly thereafter. This memory still haunts her periodically.Disabled (Cyborg)- Karma lost a leg to Cameron Hodge, but seems mostly untraumatized by it. Nonetheless, her leg is large, bulky and inhuman looking, and leaves her slightly more vulnerable to magnetic and electrical attacks.Power Loss (Possession)- Karma's powers are psionic in nature, which leaves them weak in situations where her concentration or emotional state is hampered in some way.Weakness- Karma's powers leave victims a little wobbly at first- they will be unable to use full abilities of any kind on the turn they are taken over.Weakness (Tainted)- If Karma retains Possession of a target for too long, she will begin to adopt some of their personality traits or attitudes.

-Poor Karma. So many characters on this team with SO MUCH CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT over the years, and she just kind of got stuck in the lurch. She debuted a bit earlier than the other kids, and got added to the New Mutants team as a Claremont-creation with the newly-created kids. She was initially a REALLY ugly duckling, being flat-chested (like most of the girls on the team), pig-nosed and short-haired, and had a bit of a hair-trigger temper surrounding her rape at the end of the Vietnam War (made more sense in 1980, obviously). She quickly turned into the "Mature One" though, being the least-likely of the team to start crying (Rahne), moping (Sam), hitting (Bobby), lording over others (Amara), or being a rebellious twit (Dani- this was a screwed-up team).

-Problematically, this made "Shan" the LEAST INTERESTING character around- while the others got all sorts of 80s-level angst and fascinating stuff going on with them, Karma just kind of sat there and tut-tutted them, which resulted in her QUICK write-out- she vanished at the end of a Viper/Silver Samurai fight, and missed out on a ton of character-building adventures. They eventually found her, under the control of the Shadow King (Amal Farouk), who'd turned her into a relentless fatty-fatty-boombalatty (PC Version: Person of Gravity), but she got better after an Annual Two-Parter in Asgard.

-That STILL wasn't enough to make her interesting, however, so after the "Mutant Massacre" (where Psylocke effortlessly one-upped her Possession powers), her Plot Devices... I mean younger siblings (the ever-unseen Leong & Nga- how the frig do you pronounce that last one anyhow?) were kidnapped and she went off in search of them, pretty much leaving the team for a good long while. She found them with her evil Uncle Nguyen and did some stuff in Singapore (she became an occasional Wolverine supporting character around this time) but rarely interacted with the New Mutants- or X-Force- again.

-Modern times saw her come out of the closet (well, she hadn't been interested in any dudes yet, so it was hardly out of character), start teaching the REALLY young X-students, then vanish, then come back to the modern "New Mutants" series, which has seen her take a life (one of Legion's personalities) and lose a leg (to Cameron Hodge). Her new cyber-leg is pretty damn ugly, so hopefully they'll copy some of Forge's stuff to make her look more human. Karma's an interesting case overall, as writers have CONSTANTLY struggled for something interesting for her to do. But her siblings are really boring plot devices, she's kind of a Flat Character, and even making her a lesbian hasn't made her that much more interesting. She's rather funny on the new NM book, but that's it.

-Karma is a pretty good Mind Controller archetype, though suffers Feedback if her targets are damaged horribly. She's in pretty good shape (but is highly vulnerable if you hit her), and has learned to fight really well over the years, but is still rather one-note. She has limited Mind Reading (with Remote Sensing as an Extra) and Impervious Will, but can't hold a candle to the more elaborate or heavily-AE'd Psionics like Emma Frost, Psylocke or Jean Grey. Her Possession is only at PL 10 levels because she rarely can possess the REALLY hardcore villains (there's either something preventing her from doing so, or they just plain out-will her), and it's usually just something she does to Mooks. She's a bit pricey for her level (stupid expensive Skills), but not by much- and she's very low on Advantages.

Complications:Prejudice (Mutant)Enemy (General Nguyen Ngoc Coy)- Karma's uncle is an evil General, lording over the island nation of Singapore. They have come into conflict many times.Relationship (Leong & Nga)- Karma's younger twin siblings are a primary focus in her life, and they have disappeared or been targetted more than once.Flashback- Karma and her mother were raped (long before it was popular for comic book heroines too) by pirates during her family's escape from Vietnam, and her mother died shortly thereafter. This memory still haunts her periodically.Power Loss (Possession)- Karma's powers are psionic in nature, which leaves them weak in situations where her concentration or emotional state is hampered in some way.Weakness- Karma's powers leave victims a little wobbly at first- they will be unable to use full abilities of any kind on the turn they are taken over.Weakness (Tainted)- If Karma retains Possession of a target for too long, she will begin to adopt some of their personality traits or attitudes.

-Karma's post-Asgard (a set of Annuals showed the New Mutants and Storm get separated into different parts of Asgard, where each one got a little boost or a personal storyline- it was really quite good, actually) self has just gotten through a TON of on-the-spot survival training (though it certainly helps when you can just POSSESS the target and make them sit there while you calmly kill them), and is in the shape of her "Modern" self, but a bit weaker on the Possession side, with a few ranks less in everything, and a tad less Awareness. Still a fairly good character at PL 9 (135), but like most Psionics, she doesn't even approach her Defensive caps.

Complications:Prejudice (Mutant)Enemy (General Nguyen Ngoc Coy)- Karma's uncle is an evil General, lording over the island nation of Singapore. They have come into conflict many times.Relationship (Leong & Nga)- Karma's younger twin siblings are a primary focus in her life, and they have disappeared or been targetted more than once.Flashback- Karma and her mother were raped (long before it was popular for comic book heroines too) by pirates during her family's escape from Vietnam, and her mother died shortly thereafter. This memory still haunts her periodically.Power Loss (Possession)- Karma's powers are psionic in nature, which leaves them weak in situations where her concentration or emotional state is hampered in some way.Weakness- Karma's powers leave victims a little wobbly at first- they will be unable to use full abilities of any kind on the turn they are taken over.Weakness (Tainted)- If Karma retains Possession of a target for too long, she will begin to adopt some of their personality traits or attitudes.

-Karma as a rookie is the highest-PL member of the New Mutants BY FAR (she's able to Possess guys like Spider-Man in her first appearance- even without the standard "first appearance" boost to stats every character ever gets, that's pretty high up there for a PL 5 group), but still very weak and easy to hurt. She's basically a normal teenage girl with some toughness, smarts and a really good Possession power.

Last edited by Jabroniville on Sat Jun 22, 2013 12:47 am, edited 3 times in total.

Complications:Prejudice (Mutant)Prejudice (Bisexual)- Rictor has expressed sexual interest in a great deal of women, but has also willingly made kisses with Shatterstar.Relationship (Wolfsbane)- Rictor was the Bad Boy to Rahne's Good Girl for the latter part of the New Mutants, and kept his crush on her going for years afterwards. They've recently had sex, but are arguing frequently.Relationship (Shatterstar)- Initially a Buddy/Buddy thing with some vague homoeroticism, that has gotten a whole lot less vague lately.Reputation (Criminal)- Rictor's family is basically a gigantic bunch of gun-runners in Mexico- it has led to the death of his father (at Stryfe's hands), and the injuries of many others. He is shamed by this fact, and it's the reason that he has left his family many times.Obsession (Mutant Powers)- Rictor did not take his power loss well following M-Day, and attempted suicide over it. His lack of connection with the Earth still haunts him.

-Rictor started out as one of the teen students of X-Factor in that book's second year, which I always thought was a dumb idea. I mean, that was ALREADY the point of The New Mutants, plus there was Power Pack. So they added MORE kids? Bizarre. Ric & Boom-Boom were classic 80s-style teenagers, but in that crappy sense. Little thought-out beyond being a Bad Boy and a Snotty Mall Brat, they were just kind of weak overall. When they got added to the Mutants themselves in that book's painful slide, it was an obvious Jump the Shark moment- neither were that great, ESPECIALLY compared to who they were replacing (Dani, Magik, Cypher), and they had none of the depth of the original crew.

-Ric left the squad very late in the run, deciding to chase after Rahne (whom he'd grown attached to, and she was in Genosha), but he never found her- he was added to "Weapon: P.R.I.M.E.", a hit squad comprised of some X-Force adversaries, and sent after Cable (who he realized had murdered his father when he was a boy- which you'd think would have come up earlier, when Cable was LEADING HIM, but apparently it just came to him). With Cable thought dead in the X-Cutioner's Song, Ric stuck around anyways, and we had some odd moments where team leader Cannonball treated him like a long-lost best pal and fallback guy, despite the two only hanging out for fifteen-to-twenty issues at-most in the "New Mutants" series.

-Ric at this point was a generic Blaster, doing a lot of "hang back and shake up the guy's armour", and not much else. He was a classic Latin Charmer (now that Sunspot was more angsty and angry), ultra-smooth and with a brutally-90s outfit, though he did have a cute buddy cop thing going with the needy Shatterstar, who always wanted to hang out with him. This relationship was quite heavily homoerotic, which didn't get much more than a few jokey mentions until Peter David just straight-up had them kiss, which was funny. If only because if you listened real close, you could hear Shatty-buns' creator Rob Liefeld howl in agony in the distance.

-This Rictor build showcases him without his super-powers, which he lost during M-Day. Initially suicidal, he's apparently gotten used to it, and is now a valued member of the team. He's basically a low-level PL 7 NPC in this format, lacking offensive hitting power, but focusing on his Bad-Ass Normal properties. He's nowhere near the Captain America/Batman Class of B-AN types, or even the Nightwing/Daredevil Class, or the Robin Class- he's just a pretty strong, pretty tough, above-points-cost PL 7 dude.

Complications:Prejudice (Mutant)Relationship (Wolfsbane)- Rictor was the Bad Boy to Rahne's Good Girl for the latter part of the New Mutants, and kept his crush on her going for years afterwards. Relationship (Shatterstar)- Initially a Buddy/Buddy thing with some vague homoeroticism.Reputation (Criminal)- Rictor's family is basically a gigantic bunch of gun-runners in Mexico- it has led to the death of his father (at Stryfe's hands), and the injuries of many others. He is shamed by this fact, and it's the reason that he has left his family many times.Accident (Mutant Powers)- Rictor's powers have caused accidents in the past, and he is terrified of using them in Earthquake-prone areas.

-Rictor's a bit more interesting as a combatant with his mutant powers intact- in fact, he's a PL 9 Blaster through and through, complete with the lowered Defensive PL and a bit weaker Melee Skill. His Blasts are either generic or Line Area, or can convert into a +9 Weaken Toughness effect at range (used VERY often during the Nicieza X-Force era), or an Earthquake effect (basically a Ranged version of the Groundstrike Power) with a +9 Damage quotient added to a +10 Trip. This last bit is what makes him a PL 10, otherwise, he's a PL 9 who's 11 points over-cost: Good but not great. But the guy was at-best a back fighter in X-Force anyways- always shooting away or assisting the others, and rarely ending fights. His Earthquake Effect is kind of hard to pull off in a team scenario too, making him limited.

Complications:Prejudice (Mutant)Relationship (Wolfsbane)- Rictor was the Bad Boy to Rahne's Good Girl for the latter part of the New Mutants, and kept his crush on her going for years afterwards. Reputation (Criminal)- Rictor's family is basically a gigantic bunch of gun-runners in Mexico- it has led to the death of his father (at Stryfe's hands), and the injuries of many others. He is shamed by this fact, and it's the reason that he has left his family many times.Accident (Mutant Powers)- Rictor's powers have caused accidents in the past, and he is terrified of using them in Earthquake-prone areas.

Complications:Prejudice (Mutant)Reputation- Douglas was brought back to commit great evil, and still has some trouble convincing people he's not nuts.Power Loss (Blinded)- Doug needs to be able to see his targets' body language to use many of his powers (Insight, Persuasion, Fighting)- without his vision, he would be reduced to his regular traits. He can be hit from behind much more easily as well.Power Loss (General)- Various other things may disrupt Doug's abilities. If the targets are "blank slates" (ie. being controlled), he may be unable to 'read' them properly.Relationship (Warlock)- Doug is Warlock's Selfsoulfriend, and the two are relatively inseparable.

-Doug Ramsey rocks. He's a great example of the proof that not ALL mutants got awesome, totally-useful powers. All Doug got was understanding languages. Sure it was handy in French Class, but as an X-Man? He's just not cut out for it. So Claremont took this opportunity to show the ever-rare NORMAL kid without a messed-up history or backstory (they almost made his dad a member of Reverend Stryker's organization, but thought better of it), and had him hang out with the regular New Mutants cast as a side-guy at first, then finally an important member of the squad. Never much good in a fight, they nonetheless ended up in countless situations where reading some instructions or hacking into a computer were absolutely necessary (similar to why there's always a lake in an Aquaman-starring JLA story, or always an injury when Dr. Mid-Nite's around in JSA).

-Funny thing was, Doug was kind of unpopular. Fans apparently wrote in a lot saying they hated him and his lame powers (even when Warlock formed Power Armour around him). So during the worst arc in New Mutants history (the infamous "Bird-Brain" storyline), Doug was killed by a Dr. Moreau rip-off in a loincloth and a revolver, trying to save Wolfsbane, with whom he'd fallen in love. And the fanbase exploded, writing in all these comments about how much they loved Doug, and how bad they sucked for killing him off. So apparently comic fans in the 80s were just as impossible to please as comic fans today. This ended Doug's story for years, as he was just another sad end in a book full of them (especially once X-Force started and Doug was just a memory). Though I'm not a fan of Simonson's writing on the book, Doug's death was handled very well, as Magneto was beside himself with grief, and Warlock couldn't understand why PLAYING DOUG'S BODY LIKE A PUPPET BY ANIMATING HIM was a bad thing.

-It was assumed at first that the new "Douglock" character introduced in mid-90s Excalibur was a merger of Doug and Warlock (when 'Lock himself was killed, his ashes were spread on Doug's grave- and VERY early on, the Douglock mergers between the two were hinted as slowly turning Doug into a Techno-Organic being, so the hints were early), but through some stuff I never really bothered to read up on too much, it turns out it was just Warlock with some Doug memories. So it took until just a year ago that Doug got FINALLY revived, being resurrected for Blackest Nigh-- I mean Necrosha, with some other Techno-Organic Zombies under Selene's command. But Doug got to STAY alive, being the first "new" member of the reassembled New Mutants squad. And his powers got an upgrade, turning "I can understand all languages" into "I can read body language, so I know all of your moves and attacks before you do them", which is a pretty sweet deal. It's cool to see Doug back (and being useful), so we'll see where this ends up.

-Doug's powers are a real test of any RPG system, so I'm liking what 3e has so far. Essentially what he's got now is a set of Enhanced Traits that have Complications on them (avoiding a LOT of trying to figure out just how much all these "Drawbacks" are worth, points-wise- the GM can just decide at-will what his limits are!), as he can 'read' people like he can books. This allows him Enhanced Fighting, Presence, Defenses, Initiative and fantastic Insight- making him basically a Martial Artist template with a heavy weak point. He's an over-costed PL 9, as he lacks real hitting power (it's enough to challenge the entire New Mutants at once- using his "first appearance" bonus), but is really good on a mental level. His main Comprehend Power is only 8 points, so it's a good thing he's got all those other powers now. He's a real bugger to hit in combat, shoot at range, or even attack first. So he's still no powerhouse, but he's a lot more useful. And Lucky. Doug got a LOT of the game-winning Feats back in the day, so needs Luck.

Complications:Prejudice (Mutant)Relationship (Warlock)- Doug is Warlock's Selfsoulfriend, and the two are relatively inseparable.Relationship (Wolfsbane)- Doug was crushing on Rahne near the end of his first life.

-Doug came into things a little later, matching the early PL of the gang, but never moving past it- this suits him right around the time that he died. Not totally inaccurate, and rather hard to hit, but not tough (how many heroes die to a single bullet from a scientist?), and not a heavy hitter either. He's pretty much JUST the "Hacking and Teamwork" guy, occasionally getting lucky (remember: Marvel Comics Rules state that the least powerful guy will nearly ALWAYS score the definitive hit on a mega-supervillain).

Last edited by Jabroniville on Sat Jun 22, 2013 12:47 am, edited 1 time in total.

Complications:Prejudice (Mutant)Relationship (Guthrie Family)- Sam is the eldest of a huge assortment of children, and feels a tremendous amount of responsibility to protect and/or honour them.Motivation (The Dream)- Growing up the student of three different schools of thought regarding mutants (Xavier, Magneto, Cable), Sam has the most varied schooling of all the mutants alive, and feels a closeness to "The Dream" as a result. He is easily the New Mutant most-obsessed with it.The Burden of Leadership- Sam often struggles with the emotional distance required of a team leader, and obsesses over whether or not his decisions were for the best.Rivalry (Danielle Moonstar)- They used to be respecting co-leaders, but as adults, they tend to butt heads, as Dani kept her rebelliousness, and Sam became even more of a Boy Scout.

-Cannonball is really the Breakout Character of the New Mutants series. While most of the characters immediately went into Marvel Limbo, as the book bridged right over into the '90s, which needed different kinds of heroes, ol' Sam stuck around on X-Force, becoming the leader under Fabian Nicieza's writing. This put in a few new aspects to the character, who'd been the most goody-goody and responsible of the kids (which isn't saying much, but still), and was responsible for the most crushes by a ways- the guy had a major crush on Amara/Magma at first, but that faded in a puppy-love sort of way. Then he had a thing with Firestar in that introduction Mini of hers, and that vanished as she went into Marvel Limbo 'till New Warriors came out. Then he fell in love with Lila Cheney, ultra-80s rockstar extraordinaire (which was awesome, and so very 80s), while Wolfsbane got a crush on him, etc. Eventually he & Lila drifted (she hardly fit into the '90s), and he hooked up with Boom-Boom, one of the added-on X-Terminators kids.

-Sam was a great subversion of stereotypes because here was this Kentuckian coal miner's son who talked in a thick hillbilly accent (saying "Ah" instead of "I") who was actually very intelligent. He was actually the SMARTEST kid on the team (next to possibly Doug), and had the most varied knowledge, not to mention being the least-angsty (again, not saying much)- All HE had to worry about was an entire brood of children without a father who couldn't meet the bills, his various relationships going on at any given time, and the leadership of the entire New Mutants team (shared with Dani). Small beans compared to some of the others.

-With X-Force, he did a Father/Son type of deal with Cable, and then found out he was IMMORTAL! Yeah, using some stuff from "Highlander", the Liefeld/Nicieza team made Cannonball a member of the Externals, a group of mutants (and there were TONS of groups of mutants in the 90s) who were immortal in addition to their other powers, and which Apocalypse & Selene apparently belonged to as well. This was a major factor in Cable's deciding to come to our time, and played heavily in Sam's characterization. The eventual writing-out of that plot point was so dramatically and poorly done (Selene just walked in and killed THE ENTIRE ROSTER of Externals and then said Sam "Was never one of us at all") that people just assumed there was a threatened lawsuit on the part of the "Highlander" people (there wasn't), and it utterly failed to explain the time Sam RESURRECTED and the fact that Cable only came to this time because of Sam.

-Sam's brush with leadership in X-Force was cool because he struggled with it in a way few leaders did. He didn't automatically get the answers right, and made a ton of mistakes. He was happy (eventually) when Cable came back from the dead and took the reigns back, because the poor kid was breaking under the pressure, what with the team being outlaws and all. The quality given his character led to an actual X-Men run, becoming the first New Mutant ever to get "promoted", which was kind of the point of that series, eventually- the writers just forgot about all the characters. Of course, this graduation came at a price- his character development got dumped, and he became the plucky, nervous rookie, suddenly incapable of making most major decisions, and acting as the New Kid to the rest of the team. *sigh*

-The next decade was kind of weird for Sam, as he bounced between Limbo and minor roles on X-teams. He was on that X-Corporation gig (ie. "let's actually USE all these un-teamed characters once in a while so the fans don't wonder where they went") that fell away as soon as the next guy took over the X-Franchise, and kicked around on a few minor X-teams as well. It wasn't until recently, with a new "New Mutants" series that Sam's come into his own again, leading the much older squad, and having to deal with adult-level angst ("My whole team thinks they could do a better job, and one of them wants me dead" Cyclops: "Heh. Welcome to my world."). Sam's one of my favourites because he's such an unsung hero, and has more depth than almost anybody.

-Statting Cannonball is always a real test of a system's boundaries (a lot of X-Characters are like that, really- Rogue, Warlock, modern Cypher, Magik) because a lot of it is based around a very vague "Blast Field" effect. It functions as a regular Force Field that can aid others he's touching, and is highly Impervious, but AEs Dynamically into three different damage-type effects that have been used fairly regularly over the years. Two are Battering Rams, one of which is a Line Area one, and the other a standard Strike, and the third is a Burst. Now, you could say that they aren't AEs of the Force Field, since they're just projections OF IT, but I figure it makes the Field weaker as it extends further from his body, and he'd only drop the points of Affects Others & Impervious if he used a full-on Blast, since the Field is 30 points at-base. Bare minimum, if he uses a full Battering Ram of 20 points, he's still got a 9-point Force Field up, which is quite good.

-He's also got Subtle Flight, as he learned how to keep his Blasting to a small whisper over the years, and he's partially Immortal- immune to Aging and with light Regenerative capabilities. I would've went with Immortality, but that costs WAY too much for something that's been written out over the years, and he only Res'd exactly once. Adding to it would pop about 20 points onto his build, if you're a stickler for old continuity that people barely follow (though the current writer says he hasn't entirely written out the idea of using it).

-All of this combines to make Sam a slightly more-expensive PL 10, which I think is appropriate. He's smart, Skilled, a decent fighter, and a guy with lots of varied powers, so he deserves a few extra points. For additional Stunts & Alternate Effects, you've got crazy stuff like his "Absorb Gladiator's strongest blow, then throw it back in his face while his confidence is shattered" stunt, protecting TONS of guys from a Base explosion that took out half a mountain, and more- he's quite versatile in the hands of a creative player.

Complications:Prejudice (Mutant)Relationship (Guthrie Family)- Sam is the eldest of a huge assortment of children, and feels a tremendous amount of responsibility to protect and/or honour them.Motivation (The Dream)- Growing up the student of three different schools of thought regarding mutants (Xavier, Magneto, Cable), Sam has the most varied schooling of all the mutants alive, and feels a closeness to "The Dream" as a result. He is easily the New Mutant most-obsessed with it.Relationship (Tabitha Smith)- Sam is quite close to teammate Tabitha Smith, aka "Boom-Boom", and will jump to defend her.Responsibility (The Burden of Leadership)- Sam has great difficulty taking charge of his team, constantly doubting his own actions.

-This is a slightly weaker Sam at the tail-end of the New Mutants book, and probably right when it became X-Force. All that Immortality stuff was a bit beyond him (ie. he hadn't spent the XP on it yet), and he was just the plucky "yessir" type of follower that Cable wanted.

Complications:Prejudice (Mutant)Relationship (Guthrie Family)- Sam is the eldest of a huge assortment of children, and feels a tremendous amount of responsibility to protect and/or honour them.Relationship (Lila Cheney)- Sam is obsessed with musician/intergalactic thief Lila Cheney, and she is quite fond of him as well. Responsibility (New Mutant Leader)

-Circa issue #50 or so, Sam's actually a PL 8, mainly through sheer power and durability than actual skill. Note that his power is responsible for more Toughness than his own Stamina at this point, and that his "Blasting" is now EXTREMELY loud, to the point where people could hear him from a mile away.

Complications:Prejudice (Mutant)Relationship (Guthrie Family)- Sam is the eldest of a huge assortment of children, and feels a tremendous amount of responsibility to protect and/or honour them.Relationship (Amara Aquila)- Sam has a big-league schoolboy crush on teammate Magma, seeing as how she's so elegant and beautiful. She does not feel the same towards him, but even so, he often acts out and does stupid things to impress her.Accident- Sam can barely control his powers, and has difficulty stopping or maneuvering his flight path. This frequently leads to collisions and major damage to structures.

-Here's Sam way back in the early days- he lacks combat skill, can't aim his Flight (part of what I loved about this series- his powers had some HEAVY drawbacks on them), etc., but is the highest-level of his team by far because of the sheer power of his Area Damage. He's also still just as tough as he is when he's older, packing PL 6.5 defensive capabilities, despite being as easy to hit as can be (a five-point trade-off, which is HUGE for someone at PL 7-ish levels).

Last edited by Jabroniville on Sat Jun 22, 2013 12:48 am, edited 2 times in total.

Complications:Prejudice (Mutant)Relationship (Father)- Tabitha's father was an ugly, abusive, trailer-trash drunk who beat her and threw her out upon discovering her mutant powers.Reputation (Mall Brat)- Tabitha grew into a rather silly adult, moving between "Serious Superhero" and "Vapid Thrill-Seeker" more than once.Power Loss (Wrist-Blasters)- Tabitha's wrist-blasters are specially designed with her powers in mind, and she may lose the option of Multiattacking without them.

-Boom-Boom started off as a pretty off-kilter idea: A trailer-trash princess thrown onto the street by her abusive father, she hooked up with The Beyonder and was the "human focus" character in the second Secret Wars run. Problem was, that run was crap and fans hated it. But it put Boom-Boom into the spotlight, and she acted out in the pages of X-Factor, unfortunately becoming EXACTLY the kind of "Mall-Going Idiot" that young fans had lauded The New Mutants for NOT being. Being ever so eighties, with her big spikey hair, giant glasses and trailer-trash outfits, she stuck out, but was kind of weird.

-Fast-forward to the end run of New Mutants, where she's first crushing on Rictor, then Cannonball. Oddly, she was picked in the final days of the book to be on Rob Liefeld's X-Force team (likely because she had the foresight to use explosions as part of her power-set), where she & Sam became the "Official Team Couple" of the book. Now, I REALLY hated her during this time. Reading the book as a young fan just getting into comics, she was under-powered, silly, vapid, and served no roll on a team where eventually SIX PEOPLE had long-range attack power (Rictor, Sunspot, Cable, Domino, Siryn & Boomer). She wasn't even any good in fights- she couldn't pull off the Hawkeye/Atom "Weakest Guy Wins The Fight" tricks AT ALL, and would go down to a single hit. Frickin' SKIDS put her on the disabled list with one kick! When the BARRIER WARRIOR kicks your ass, you know you suck.

-She got a bit of an upgrade during her "Meltdown" phase, using her powers in new ways (actual streaming Blasts, threatening to drop Time Bombs into The Blob's body to kill him), but that was during X-Force's nadir as a team book, so it got forgotten, and resident super-hero-hater Warren Ellis got to use her in Nextwave, de-railing her character into an even BIGGER Valley Girl stereotype, actually having her speak out Emoticons and LOLspeak ("Oh Noes!"). Well, at least they didn't ruin a really GOOD character.

-Meltdown's pretty simple in her PL 9 format, but really weak for her PL (only one attack makes full points, otherwise she's a PL 8 Blaster). A few unique tricks are around, allowing for Precise Blasts, Subtlety, and her "3... 2... 1" Trigger. She can either do regular Blasts, Multiattacks, Explosions, or a Penetrating Blast for bigger targets. She's frighteningly vulnerable (though pretty good at avoiding attacks, and is rather Skilled for a chick who's often written as really dumb- she survived on her own for a good long while on the streets), though, and is really the weak link on any major team she joins.

Complications:Prejudice (Mutant)Relationship (Father)- Tabitha's father was an ugly, abusive, trailer-trash drunk who beat her and threw her out upon discovering her mutant powers.Reputation (Mall Brat)- Tabitha is rather vapid and simple-minded about things.

I'm surprised at the lack of feedback on the New Mutant/X-Farce builds, but, I thought I would throw in my 2 cents. Now, I don't have the new rules, but, I think I'm getting a pretty good idea of how characters are put together thanks to all you prolific builders. I have to say, I like the builds and the character histories. Cannonball rocks and Cypher is a much better character in his new iteration than I would ever have imagined. And of course, Karma is the embodiment of why you don't make a character with mind control as her major power as a hero. It's as story-breaking in the comics, as it is game breaking in rpg's, and thus earns the big write out. I'm anxiously awaiting the rest of the team.

Yeah, Mind Control is a sucky Game-Breaker most of the time. I have no idea how many times I've read over the years that some villain had a "Psi-Shield" (either mechanical or trained), or that even his MOOKS has Shields up. You get stuff like Emma Frost effortlessly controlling Beast & Wolverine simultaneously (OK, for a gag, but still), but some armoured guards are immune. You'd figure that if the stuff was so cheap, maybe the heroes would invest in some.

I was wondering about the silence myself. Nothing's lamer than coming back after a day or two of being offline to find nobody commented on my stuff .

I'm going to admit that I like Rictor more since he's lost his powers. He's got this almost Noir two fisted detective thing going for him now, which fits the title that he's on. I was one of the readers that followed the almost constant Homo-eroticism between Shatterstar and Rictor throughout the 90's and I'm personally loving what Peter David is doing with them right now. He's writing them as actually actually having a developed relationship, they were together in the past and hid it but now that they're finally together again they're not hiding it. I think it works, or it at least works for me.

"When they ask how I died, tell them: still angry." - Quellcrist Falconer

I was concerned that you had abandoned the builds after such a great start. I was just about to post a few encouraging words when I logged in only to see a few new builds.

I hope that you are having as much fun writing these builds (and commentary) as I am reading them. Seriously, jabs builds, tak's builds (and a few others) are a part of my daily Internet routine. I really appreciate the work you put into Roll Call. It's an immense value added to any incarnation of MnM.

I am loving the new mutants builds. I remember reading and loving the new mutants, and ur commentary is bringing it all back. I actually quit reading the series after the bird brain/weird island adventure story arc. Even as a youth I knew they were bad.

Loving the multiple builds for each character. Just really good stuff please keep it up.

Ps I read and respond from my iPhone. that's not so easy to do otherwise I would provide more feedback to you and the other great builders on roll call.

Jabroniville wrote:I was wondering about the silence myself. Nothing's lamer than coming back after a day or two of being offline to find nobody commented on my stuff .

But you told me to keep my snide corrections to PMs...

I kid. I love the builds, particularly the different eras you represent. Would it be worthwhile to include the "Battlesuit Doug" to give people playing an early New Mutants game a way to let him play with the rest during combat?

"Battlesuit Doug" is more or less Warlock taking directions from him (full on Shapeshift allows for armoured suits, after all). In fact, were I to recommend/GM a New Mutants campaign, I'd just have one player play them both.

And yes, these builds are a blast to write up. As much as I love building Jobbers, it's much more fun to build up characters that I know exceptionally well from dozens and dozens of stories. New Mutants, X-Men, Avengers, Spidey guys, etc.